Since his debut EP Fail For You dropped last year London singer songwriter Luke Sital Singh has become the new darling of the folk world. Garnering heavy rotation on BBC Radio One and earning much love from the blogosphere, the 25 year olds’ newly released follow-up EP Old Flint has expanded on his melodic, heart-string tugging folk. What's On caught up with him to shoot the breeze ahead of his debut headline Irish show.

When did you start writing songs?

I started playing guitar when I was like 11, I think. I probably started writing a few years after that. I'm 25 now, so nearly ten years ago probably. When I first started making noise and stuff, I was playing electric guitar and I was into grunge and nu-metal and stuff. My friends and me were just playing loud music, shouting and things, it wasn't particularly tuneful. But once I started getting serious about it, it was always this kind of music. The whole singer-songwriter thing really took me over and I've been doing the same thing since.

The path of the singer-songwriter is well worn. Do you feel pressure to stand out?

I guess there is in a way. It's one of those art forms that is very, very simple so it looks quite easy to people. Everyone gives it a go, you get a lot of open mic nights and stuff and no shortage of people standing on stage and singing their songs. But to me that's what makes it really difficult, that it is really simple. There's a subtle distinction between the good ones and the bad ones. But when you see someone who's good at it, it's really obvious and they stand out.

You’ve been described as a British Bon Iver. What do you make of those comparisons?

I'm a big fan so it's flattering to a degree but I think that really came from my first single 'Fail For You' which was a song with lots of harmonies and voices on it, which I was literally just copying from Bon Iver. (laughs) When I was really getting into that first record, I had never really experimented that much with layered voices, so I just sort of sat down to try and play around with that. I just needed a song in order to record lots of vocals for it and it ended up becoming something quite special. The recording that you hear is that experiment that I did, I didn't re-record it or anything, it's the bedroom recording. But other than that song, there's not really anything that I can see that connects us. But I can see why the comparison comes from that song because I was ripping him off.

How does the new EP compare to your first?

It's a little bit like a step up. It's a little bit wider, a little bit grander. There are more instruments on it. The first EP was quite stripped back, quite small and intimate. Although we try to keep true to that, because that's what works, we've added in drums and slightly bigger arrangements and things. Of the four songs on there, some of them are my oldest songs and some are my newest ones. There's a good breadth of time on there. It felt good. I recorded it with the same guys in the same little barn in Sussex. Whenever we were recording we were trying to keep true to what I do live, which at the moment I still do on my own. So when we were in the recording studio I'd just stand up in front of the mic and sing the songs and just try and get the best performance. We did the same thing with both EPs and it seems to work quite well.

You’ve toured with our own Villagers. What was that like?

That was great. That was probably my favourite tour that I've done. All around Europe we went. They're a brilliant bunch of lads, really fun and kind of bullying, but in a good way. I was compared to the tour dog. It was like having a little tour pet for them because I was pretty much on my own. They're a crazy bunch and I'm a big fan of their music.

Luke Sital Singh plays the Little Museum of Dublin on Wednesday, May 22.